Brouwersgracht

This guide to Brouwersgracht in Amsterdam traces the canal's origin as the working heart of the city's seventeenth-century brewing industry, when the canals themselves were too polluted to brew with and ships had to sail upriver to the Vecht for clean water. It follows the trade of grain, hops and finished beer through the warehouses lining both banks, and how that supply chain fed ships bound for the Dutch East India Company's voyages to Asia. Listen for how a street built for barrels and cargo became one of the canal ring's quietest residential stretches.